Sympathy Cards

Here are some  Sympathy cards that I made in the past.  Most of them are quilled.  These were made before I had my Big Shot  embossing machine. These first ones are some of my early cards.  You'll see a lot of my folded roses on these.  I also like to use punched leaves, and tiny punched flowers as well.

 

This next one was a design team project using black and white... The punched flowers are velvet/suede paper. 

These 2 are similar in design.  I used the Onion Holder to make the cross on them.  I like to use Ornare (paper pricking) to accent the quilling.  Pearl Papers were used for both.

For this next one, I embossed the outside, and  hand embosed the flowers ont he square using a brass template.  Again, pearl papers were used. The Green leaf one was done with peel offs on water color paper, and colored with Tombow markers.  This is a fun technique. The gold leaf on the black card is the inside of the leaf peel off.

Gilded Papers From Book Pages

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine was going to get rid of some of her old Readers Digest Condensed books. She told me that the edges of the book were gilded in gold. Since she was going to put them in the recycling bin anyhow, I asked if I could have one. After I got it, I other two side's edges with a yellow gold acrylic, which looks not too bad, but it is not nearly as nice as the top metallic edges. The pages are aged, and look like an ivory color now, which is perfect for antique style quilling.

I also came across a small pocket calendar that someone had given to me a few years ago. I kept it, as the pages were bright white, and all of the edges were gilded in a very shiny metallic gold. Again, perfect for quilling! For both the readers Digest, and the calendar booklet, I pull some pages out when I need them, and then just trim either 1/8" or 1/16" wide strips, using my Fiskars Euro Trimmer (pages then go in our recycling bin). The paper is lighter in weight, but it still rolls pretty well. For both, the shine of the gold edges is comparable to the high shine of Jane Jenkins's gilded quilling strips. The following are 2 similar cards I made with both the ivory and the white gilded strips. It's hard to get a great picture, because of the amount of metallic shine from the gold edges. I hope you like them. They are both birthday cards, using the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder for the background. Both ovals are from Spellbinders Nestabilities. I did the edges gold using a Krylon 18ct. Gold Leafing pen.  This has me keeping my eye out for old books with gold edges....Enjoy, and as usual, all comments welcome!

Birthday Cards For a Couple of Sisters

This might be a tad confusing, but I made this first one for a friend of my mom’s (named Bea), who ordered it for her sister’s birthday (Alice), and was going to give it to her when she came here from Ontario to Alberta for Bea’s Birthday which was close to the same time, and saved her mailing it (Confused yet?). I did my usual roses, and added punched butterflies as well. It's nice when Bea orders cards, because she lets me do almost anything I want, and she is always pleased with them.

This next one, my mom asked me to make for her friend Bea who was having her 80th birthday, and her family was having a huge party for her. So, her and her sister both received a quilled card that week :) . Bea’s Card was done in fringed pink flowers and blue teardrop flowers. Once again for both cards I used texture plate from Sizzix set #19.

I thought I'd show you some of my pieces from April and May....

I made these a few months ago. This first one is a thank you card for one of my quilling friends in Victoria. I used the Spellbinders nestabilities inverted scalloped square to cut out the square in the card. I especially like these dies for cutting out scalloped shapes in the cards. They do an awesome job! I then used a quilled butterfly for inside the square. The texture plate is from Sizzix set # 19. It’s in shades of purples, but my camera doesn’t like purples too much, so it looks an odd color from how it really looked.  I colored the ribbon using one of my Bic markers.

This next card is a birthday card for another quilling friend in Victoria.  It’s my rose splash design. The embossing folder is the Cuttlebug A2 Happy Birthday folder. I cut the strips for the leaves using a 1/8” shredder, I think my fringed flowers were cut ¼” strips of pearl white, and the roses are about ¼” strips  of Paplin's pink pearl accessory sheets that I cut using my Fiskars Euro-trimmer. 

Wedding Season Means Lots of Cards!

May, June and July were very popular for weddings this year! I had 3 weddings to attend 3 weekends in a row, so needless to say was busy making cards for them. For all of the cards, I used spellbinders nestabilities for cutting out the fancy ovals around the text . I just love the nestabilities, as they give such a clean cut, and add so much to the designs. The printing was all done on my computer.

I also had a couple of special order cards one was for May, and the other was for July. They were being given by a grandmother to her 2 grand daughters, so it was requested that they both be close to the same. This is the design that she wanted, ivory Calla Lilies. They both even had similar verses.  I was told they both loved them and are having them framed.  They were all teary eyed when they told me, which was a good feeling, to see them so happy with them.

My Nephew was married June 19th.  In May I went to his fiancée’s shower, so this is the card I made for it. It is a money /gift certificate holder card. The leaves and scrolls are done in 1/16" narrow strips.  The roses are made with 1/8" wide strips

Their wedding was a medieval theme, so I used the same font as what was on their invitations for their wedding card. She had told me for flowers she was having dried flowers wheat, and peacock feathers. So, this is what I came up with. The wispy tendrils are from peacock feathers (My parents have peacocks on their farm). The picture does not show it well, so I hope to get another picture of it in the near future. The background is the scroll texture plate, from the Sizzix Texture plates #19. I also used touch of gold paper for the bells, and small flowers, and Merlot metallic papers for the fringed flowers. This was not my usual style, but they were thrilled with it. I didn’t like it as I made it, but by the time I finished, I quite liked the result.

The next weekend we had Bill’s sisters wedding. Her theme was colorful summer flowers and butterflies, so I did blue fringed daisies, some small punched flowers, and a metallic looped teardrop butterfly using saphire metallic strips, that I edged with  twinkling H2O's water colors, and  I also used the bright white holographic edged strips from Jane Jenkin's papers. I love those papers!  This is the result. Again, I used a texture plate from set #19.

                                                                                                                              

The 3rd wedding was friends of ours. The silver hearts were on their invitation, so I added them to the top corner. I used pearl papers for all of the quilling. The embossing was done with the Victoria Folder, which as you may have guessed, is one of my favorites.  I especially like how this one turned out. 

Finally! Individual pictures of Demo Samples and Descriptions!

Finally I have posted individual pictures of my demo sample, with descriptions of them!  May and June were crazy around here.  I had a banquet, and then 3 wedding from June 19th to July third, plus some special card orders to get ready.  Eventually I'll get pictures posted...I hope you enjoy the  demo samples!

Card #1 Tools used:

Quilling slotted tool, Tacky glue

5 petal teardrop flower and shaped marquise leaves, with open scroll tendrils, using the slotted tool. Embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder on punched scalloped oval, and Victoria folder for background.

 
 

 

Card #2 Tools used:

Slotted quilling tool & crimping tool, Crafters Pick “The Ultimate” glue.

White scalloped oval stuck on pink card with the Sookwang double sided tape, & then embossed with the Cuttlebug Victoria folder. I Pearl 1/8” crimped strips, along the short sides. ¼” wide white pearls strips crimped for the bow and 1/8” silver quill-trim strips for the bells.

Card #3 Tools used:

Quilling needle tool & crimping tool & amp; Tacky glue.

White scalloped punched square embossed with Cuttlebug Candy Cane Stripes folder. Background embossed with Birds & Swirls folder. I used the crimper for the Sunflower center, leaves, and corners. The petals were made with the needle tool. I used Stardust clear gel pen to highlight the flower center.

 
 

Card #4 Tools used:


Fringing Clip, El’s Scissors, slotted tool, and needle tool. Tacky glue & Crafters Pick “The Ultimate” glue.


Scalloped punched oval, and background debossed with Victoria folder at same time, and then oval mounted with foam tape. Corner flowers are Paplin’s graduated ¼” wide strips, fringed with clip and scissors, and then rolled with slotted tool. The leaves made with needle tool. The larger flower is 3/8” pink pearl strip with a 1/8” wide white strip for center. Fringed using clip, and scissors, and then rolled with the slotted tool. Leaves are made with the Alternate Side Looping technique.

Card #5 Tools used:

Needle tool, Designer/circle sizer board, pins, and tacky glue.

Punched scalloped oval on pink background that was embossed with flower border folder, from Cuttlebug Just My Type set. 5 petal flower leaves & scrolls made with the needle tool. The petals are eccentric teardrops made by using the designer board/circle sizer, and offsetting the center of coils (using pins), then gluing. Once glue is dry, shaping into teardrops.

Card # 6 Tool’s used:

Needle tool & El’s scissors, & Crafters Pick “The Ultimate” glue.

2 punched scalloped squares layered, and mounted onto background that was embossed using Cuttlebug Divine Swirls folder. Roses made with the needle tool. Large on is ¼” pink pearl, the small ones are 1/8” pink pearl. The large leaves are fringed using El’s scissors (scissors like tweezers), and the small leaves are marquise shapes made with needle tool.

Card # 7 Tools used:

Needle tool, Designer/circle sizer board, pins, and tacky glue.

Black card is embossed with Cuttlebug Oriental Weave folder, and mounted on pink card. The teardrop shapes of the butterfly are eccentric coils made using the designer board/circle sizer, and offsetting the center of coils (using pins), then gluing. Once glue is dry, shaping into teardrops. Open scrolls and body are made All scrolls and coils rolled with the needle tool. The paper is from Lake City Touch of Gold mixed pack. Colors are pink & black.

Card #8 Tools used:

Quilling Comb/Onion Holder & Needle tool, & tacky glue.

Plain white punched scalloped square, mounted on plain lilac card. The corners and wings of humming bird are made with the quilling comb/onion holder. The head and body are made with the needle tool. *This bird is from Quilled Creations quilling comb kit.

Card # 9 Tools used:

Quilling Needle tool, ¼” dowel, tacky glue.

Lake City touch of Gold Ivory strips. Foam tape

Teardrops are quilled around a ¼’ wide dowel. The leaves, scrolls & flower center are made with the needle tool. I mounted it onto a punched oval, that I had first done the edge in gold then it is mounted using foam tape onto the embossed (Victoria folder) piece which I used a brillo stomper to add some gold flecks, but they don’t show up well in the picture. The embossing was mounted with double sided tape. 

Demo Samples!

Well, it's been longer than I would have liked since I last posted,  Things are just so busy right now.  I have a dart banquet next weekend, then 3 weddings to attend starting June 19th. One every week for 3 weeks is a lot!  Anyways, I did a Demo at Paper Pastimes on April 17th, 2010.  It was of course about quilling, but based on the favorite tools I like to use.  including my Big Shot pressure embossing machine.  This is a picture of all of the samples that I made  for the demo.  I  pre-made a couple of them before the demo, and then had the rest partially made, so I could complete them during the demo.  I think it was a great success, as everyone, enjoyed it, and many were buying quilling supplies, and asking lots of questions before they left.  So, this is a picture of all of the cards that were shown.  I will hopefully get the single ones uploaded soon complete with descriptions of the tools I used.

3D Teacup...

After recently telling someone about my quilled teacup, I thought I would post it here, since they were interested in seeing it.  I made this back in 2006, again for a design team project. I was quite pleased with how it had turned out. The colors were teal and brick, and I think they were Paplin's papers. I used a small teacup as my mold for it. I think the first 3D quilled teacup & saucer I saw was made by Pat Caputo. I thought it was just stunning! I was so amazed by it, and loved the detail. Since I saw hers posted online, I have seen quite a few, many being very beautiful. Mine is very simplistic in detail compared to hers, and other's that I have seen. I have not yet made a saucer...but maybe someday........

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all who Celebrate! This is a card I made for an online friend, when we had a secret sister swap in 2005.  I thought it was a nice one to post for Easter!  I used a gold paint pen to gild the  edges.  The paper is navy blue.  The design is slightly modified from an old quilling pattern.  It was my first larger filigree cross.                                   



 I also made this cross for a Design Team project in 2006.   It is made with the gold metallic papers.  The design was inspired by a friend/coworkers  ceramic cross, that I saw while at her home.  I then gave her this framed one for her birthday.  The center jewel is from an ear ring that belonged to her mother.  The jewels are her birthstone color.  I sell this pattern at Custom Quilling by Denise's online store, you can click on the link to the right, or click on her web link at the top right.       

                                                    

These are pictures of a hens egg that I quilled, again for a design team project.  I gave it to my mom that Easter.  Both pictures are of the same egg, but for some strange reason, I could not get the colors to photograph the same for both pictures.  The profile showing the flower is closer to the actual color.  As you can see I used a combination of crimping and spirals which worked quite well together.

It may be a coupel of weeks before I have some new projects posted, as I am going to be very busy.  I have some card orders to get made, and a quilling demo to prepare for, a long with usual life things.... But, don't worry, I have tons of pictures of older pieces I have quilled that i may post!  Once again, Happy Easter!

Another Birthday Card...

I made this card last weekend for a friend of mines birthday. It took me longer to make, as I didn't use any of my already made stock of flowers and leaves. Again, I used the Cuttlebug 'Happy Birthday' Folder. The quilling is all done with 1/16" narrow strips from Jane Jenkins line of papers. I find I am using more narrow strips to quill with lately, and am finally getting accustomed to using them. For both the sheer ribbon and the little satin ribbon, I used a Bic 'Mark it' permanent marker in color Tropical Teal. These markers are wonderful!!! You can use them to color peel-offs, and ribbon, and they are permanent, and dry fast, because they are an alcohol base. They come in many colors. The Sharpie permanent markers also apparently work the same way, but I have not tried them yet. I especially like coloring ribbons and peal offs as the ink doesn't come off. They work well for coloring over stamped images as well. I buy mostly white sheer and satin ribbons so I can custom color them to match my cards.

Something Simple....

This card is a simple design using just 2 teardrop flowers. Both, the white and pink squares are saved from all of the window cards I had cut last fall at a local scrapbook store that has since permanently closed :( . The background was made with the Cuttlebug ‘Swiss Dots’ folder. And the side embossed border was from the Cuttlebug ‘With Love’ border set (there are five border folders in a set). It is actually a strip of card stuck to the inside panel of the card, and then I trimmed the front of the card to show it. I use double sided tape to adhere my layers. The white squares have foam pop up squares to give them added dimension. 1/16" punched dots are used for the flower centers, on both the quilled and embossed flowers. 

A Couple of Birthday Cards....

I made this card last Sunday, after I made the sunflower get well card. Again, I was using pieces that I had made. It really helps to speed things up when you have a nice little stock of flowers and leaves already made. This way you can just deal with the layout, which for me sometimes takes as long as the quilling!  The only pieces I made at the time of putting it together were the quilled tendrils, which are open scrolls. I tend not to keep too many of them on hand, as they sometimes get damaged easier than other shapes, because they aren’t glued. 

This one is a floral piece, using yellow shades. For some reason, I don’t often use yellow shades, but just wanted something sunny…  Also, it had been a while since I had made a card using folded roses, and fringing together.  Again, I used the same Sizzix texturz plate from set #19 as I did for the sunflower card. 

I made this card a couple of weeks ago for a card making friend of mine. She loved it, and thought it was so pretty. Although she likes the look of quilling, she’s tried it a couple of times, but has decided it isn’t for her. The background is a nice shade of green, as that is her favourite color. The flowers and leaves, were part of my stock, so I just had the stems and scrolled tendrils to make. I used the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug Folder. The butterflies were punched from a handmade paper that I had bits of…again, trying to use up scraps… I finished it off with a tiny little green satin bow that I tied, and glued to the stems.

My New Adventure In 3D Quilling!

3D quilling is something I never thought I would care to try. I have seen some that I don’t like the look of at all, and then I have seen some that are just amazing; such as Sherry Rodehaver’s 3D quilling, and most recently this site, which I believe is a Korean blog. No one seems to know whose site it is, but check it out, as the miniatures are absolutely amazing!  Well, all of the quilling on there is awesome, not just the miniatures! http://blog.naver.com/nizelprim 

  

Besides my Blue Morpho butterfly that I made in 3D, I made a quilled tractor twice, once on a birthday card, and once in a shadow box frame. It was very dimensional, but was not a free standing item. When Sherry saw it, she started to try and talk me into doing 3D quilling. This is my second tractor that I made for an order back in 2006. It is my own original design.

I have a good online quilling friend named Sherry Rodehaver. She does beautiful quilling, especially in 3D! She has been encouraging me for years to try 3D quilling. So, with her help, I finally completed my first 3D miniature. I have done 3D butterflies and such, but nothing quite like this. This is Sherry's design, and after making it, I have an even greater admiration for her work. It is a hen in a teacup, from her Teacup Critters Collection. It took me a few years to complete. Sherry and I used to chat fairly often on yahoo instant messaging. It was through there, that she had given me basic instructions. I made the big pieces, and put them aside, and then I got busy with other things, and didn't get back to it. Then, when I wanted to complete it, I realised, I didn't have my chat messages archived anymore, due to reformatting my pc, twice since then... So, I had no recollection of the lengths for the comb, beak, and feet, which make the whole project! Then a couple of weeks ago, I caught up with Sherry on Yahoo again, and she generously provided me with my measurements again. So, I finished it last Friday, and this is the result, of my little hen in a teacup.  It stands just 1 1/2" tall.  Please check out Sherry's ebay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/sherry-rodehavers-quilling-corner?refid=store She sells various items for quilling and  punched flowers. 

Thinking of You & Get Well Cards! ......Extra bits....

I'm slowly building up a stock of sympathy; thinking of you cards and get well cards. These are both for me to give and also sell, as they are always good to have on hand, just like any other occasion. This first one is a design inspired by a birthday card I got from my friend Joan in Victoria. I changed it somewhat, and of course used embossing to give it a different look as well. But it is still similar to her design.  The embossing folder is Cuttlebug,'s Floral Fantasy folder. and, the butterfly punches are a Martha Stewart punch.

The second one, I just made today. I used a Sizzix texture plate for it from set # 19. The cardstock is a yellow parchment  type. The flower is made from pieces I quilled a long time ago, and figured I should get them used!  The flower pot is embossed with a Cuttlebug 2x2" folder from the 'Thinking of you' set.

I’ve got several little cases, with quilled flowers, leaves, birds, & butterflies etc… But, so many compartments are just random colors of extra shapes, in all different sizes. This is what I am trying to use up….I must have hundreds of quilled shapes and bits waiting to get used... Just like various strips in all lengths, hundreds of them too... I'm trying to use them up, so they don't just sit there, while I take out yet another strip, use 1/2 and put the left over in a box, to just sit.... I can have a clean table, and then out of no where, it seems... there are quilled bits and assorted strips all over it! And once again my table can no longer be seen, for all of the papers on it! Every time, I clean my table, I tell myself, I am going to get all these bits used up, but next time there is even more. I'm sure many of you can relate to this at one time or another!

A Little Chalking....& Lots of Embossing!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a tiny break from quilling, and do some chalked and embossed cards. This is the result. I don't do this technique as often as I would like, so am a little rusty add it, but like how they turned out, for the resources I had at the time. The chalked picture is a brass template, which I embossed. And yes, I did the embossing in my Bigshot machine. It does a great job at embossing with brass templates!   For the flowers, in the corner of the butterfly picture, I used my light box, as it was a seperate brass template, and I can't emboss both at once.  The butterfly background is a Fiskars texture plate, and it works pretty well in the Bigshot, but you have to add a few cardstock shims, so the pressure will emboss it deeper. The background behind the hummingbird is a Sizzix folder, called Damask. And, the one for the rose background is again, the Victoria folder by Cuttlebug. All work well in the Bigshot. The chalks I use are pearl chalks, by Pebbles Inc. I love these chalks!!! The pictures don't pick up the subtle shimmer, which they give off. For the Sympathy peel-offs, I color them myself, using Bic felts, which are alcohol based permanent markers. I'm told that Sharpies permanent markers work as well. Both them and the Bics, come in wonderful colours, so you can match your peel-offs to your cards, instead of just having standard gold, or silver! Oh, and I also colored the ribbon  on the rose card with a Bic felt as well!  So, you can also match your ribbons with these markers! 

More With Looped Quilled Teardops

I made another card in blue with the Looped Quilled Teardrops, similar to the pink one that I recently showed. I also want to show a birthday card I made last fall in which I used this technique for a butterfly. I love how it turned out, but the picture doesn't show it nearly as well as how it actually looked. The background is again done with the Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder. And, in case I didn't mention it last time, I stuck the white square on with double sided tape, and then embossed it, so all the pattern matches. This gives a really nice effect, and I do this often. I used pearl blue chalk on the white square, but it doesn't show that well in the picture

Now, here is the butterfly card, using the saphire metalic papers for the fringing, and emerald metallic for the leaves and scrolls. The butterfly is the sapphire metallic, in which I used Luminarts twinkling H2Os paint on the edge, and then I used white holographig edged strips by Jane Jenkins. You can get these at www.whimsiquills.com  I told you they made gorgeous butterflies!   Again, all comments appreciated!

More Christmas Cards!

Well, I've got some more Christmas cards, and am now ahead of my one per week, which is a good thing! I have a couple of quilled ones to show, and a couple of cards I made from kits, that aren't quilled, but I did emboss the backgrounds, which really dressed them up.    All are embossed with Sizzix Texture plates from set #5.  These work really nice, but I use 3 cardstock shims to get them to emboss deeper. This first one is a design by Jane Jenkins © 1983.  It is a Christmas caroller, and I used 1/16" wide strips for her.  For the 2nd one, I again used Jane Jenkins designs© 1983, but modified it by changing the corner design, and adding more scrolls, and holly leaves.  She have quilled mistletoe in the top right corner.

The next 2 are from a kit, in which I bought a few of these, and then changed the layouts, and added the embossing. Besides, the texturz plates for the backgrounds, I took strips and embossed the 'Season's Greetings' & 'Merry Christmas' using the Cuttlebug Season's Greetings folder, that has has rows of different greetings.  So I just used strips,of leftover pearl card, and embossed these two certain ones. The kits come with everything, from pearl cards, which I cut, and put onto my white cards, which makes them go farther. They come with all the embellishments, and even the foam tape squares. I've had these for a while, so thought I should make use out of them.